The Vintage Appetizer From The '50s That Turns Celery From Drab To Fab

It's certainly entertaining to learn about vintage recipes, but not all of them are things you'd ever want to recreate and eat today. Ham and bananas hollandaise, anyone? Not all retro hors d'oeuvres and dinners were more comedic than edible, let alone enjoyable, though. When we rounded up eight appetizer recipes people loved in the 1950s, we found plenty of gems, and one, in particular, is especially easy, tasty, and even varying degrees of healthy (depending on the filling you choose). We're talking about stuffed celery. Starting with a base of crisp, cool, refreshing celery and then having the freedom to add really whatever creamy, savory, sweet, or salty filling you want, this dish is one of the most irresistible vintage recipes for the summertime and can just as easily please guests around the holidays.

Stuffed celery became a popular party dish as early as the 1920s. Celery was more of a luxury than an accessible staple back then, so it was a flex to serve it when entertaining. A recipe from the "American Cookery" cookbook published in 1924 calls for stuffing celery with butter, peanut butter, salt, pepper, cayenne, and, believe it or not, olives. Okay, so the stuffing wasn't always something we'd want to replicate today, but it did improve. By the 1950s, the stuffing evolved to often be something like cream cheese, a much more palatable and even delicious partner for olives. Commenters on various vintage stuffed celery recipes recall creamy, cheesy variations fondly, remembering their grandmothers making them for holidays.

A popular place to start for stuffing celery is cream cheese that's been mixed with minced garlic, salt, black pepper, and chopped green olives with pimentos — you'd then just spread that into washed and dried celery stalks and either serve or refrigerate right away. On one Facebook post highlighting stuffed celery, a commenter shared that their grandmother would make it with mayonnaise, shredded cheese, and chopped pecans, while another commenter's mother employed mayo with salmon and pickled beets.

You can switch up the cheeses, too. Use Roquefort or blue cheese for a tangier kick — both of which would also be tasty with chopped nuts. Pimento cheese would add some heat. Try getting ideas from some of the best Philadelphia cream cheese varieties, like veggie, jalapeño, olive, garlic and herb, or chive; this also allows you to pick a plant-based option. You can dress any of these up with spices like garlic, red pepper flakes, black pepper, paprika, or everything bagel seasoning, plus fresh herbs like cilantro or basil.

Think Mediterranean with hummus and black or Greek olives plus feta, or lean Mexican with avocado or guacamole with pico de gallo and cilantro. There's a world of sweet options, too: peanut butter with raisins or dried cherries and a sprinkle of cinnamon, almond butter with dried apricots, or ricotta with dates and honey. From mayo salads to Nutella or Greek yogurt, if there's a creamy base, you can build a stuffed celery treat with it.